THE blue Mitsubishi Pajero, which was purportedly used in the kidnap-slay of 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique, was sold to a car dealer in Manila last Monday for P100,000.
Bella Ruby Santos, the vehicle owner, said she sold the Pajero on the advice of her lawyers because it was so controversial.
Police confiscated the Pajero in a raid of her residence in Naga City last March 4 on the strength ob a search warrant.
The court later ordered the Criminal Intelligence and Detection Group in Central Visayas to return the Pajero to the woman after defects in the warrant surfaced.
The CIDG’s lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna said police were not worried by the sale, saying it can still be traced and “could still be used as evidence.”
“I just pity the buyer because he might be inconvenienced later,” said Dela Cerna.
Santos’ lawyer Ana Luz Cristal declined to name the buyer.
“We were negotiating for the car’s sale for the past weeks. It’s the highest price we got for it. The car dealer said the Pajero is already an old model” Cristal said yesterday.
The vehicle was shipped from Cebu to Manila last Saturday, the lawyer said.
The Pajero will be refurbished and its seat reupholstered so that the car dealer can resell it for a good price.
“It will be displayed in their showroom in Manila,” Cristal said.
Santos said her British partner Ian Charles Griffiths is planning to buy another vehicle soon.
Griffiths, who has been monitored by authorities in London, conveyed his message through Cristal.
Santos and Griffiths are facing charges of kidnapping with homicide before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office in relation to Ellah Joy’s death last Feb. 8.
The couple was implicated in the crime after Santos’ Pajero was pointed to by witnesses as the same vehicle used in dumping the body of the girl off a cliff in Barili, south Cebu. Reporter Ador Vincent S. Mayol